


How Many?

by commas_and_ampersands



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, also mako is the best and i will fight you about it, but whatever i think it's cute, nephrite is three steps away from broing out at all times here, nephrite needs a cigarette, nephrite never gets a cigarette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 05:46:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12698580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commas_and_ampersands/pseuds/commas_and_ampersands
Summary: Nephrite likes kids, but he is of the opinion that 8 is more than enough.





	How Many?

**Author's Note:**

> Written August 2010; revised November 2017 with a tweaked ending.

"How adorable is that?"  
  
Nephrite looks up from admiring Makoto's ass (which he was only doing for three seconds, tops, and besides, he's dating her, so it's not creepy, and he caught her doing the same thing to him this morning, so seriously, it's all fine) and follows her gaze.  He can't help but mirror her grin at the sight of two children, obviously brother and sister, walking hand in hand while they lick at some much needed summer ice cream.  He agrees, it is adorable.  However, he's not sure how manly it is to admit that in public.  
  
"Well, I'm not sure cuteness can be quantified."  
  
She elbows him in the ribs, misjudging her strength as usual.  It'll bruise, but he doesn't flinch.  That definitely wouldn't be manly.  "Brute."  
  
"The brutest."  
  
She rolls her eyes and gestures toward the store they've stopped in front of.  "I'm just going to pop in here real quick.  You wanna come in?"  
  
"Give me a minute," he says, ducking his head sheepishly.  "Just need a quick smoke."  Nephrite is trying to quit, and the one time he tried cold turkey, he punched Jadeite in the face for a relatively mild offense. Its much better for Nephrite's temper and Jadeite's bones if he tapers off.

Makoto gives him a supportive peck on the cheek, because she's the best.  "All right. I won't be long."  
  
"Take your time," he says.  Once she's gone, Nephrite breaths a sigh of relief and massages his tender ribs.  For someone as voluptuous as Makoto, it continues to amaze him how bony her elbows are.  
  
Knowing he only has a few minutes to indulge in his bad habit before Makoto returns, he whips a pack and a lighter from his pocket.  He's still struggling against the breeze, when he hears Makoto's rich alto waft through the open doorway.  He smiles, happy Jadeite isn't around to tell him how stupid he looks.  Can he help it if he loves the sound of her voice?  And basically everything else about her?  Up to and including the way she could probably suplex him if he asked?

Which he kind of wants to do now.  Huh.  
  
"I know.  They're simply darling, aren't they?"  
  
Nephrite doesn't hear the clerk's response, but judging by Makoto's tone of voice, they're talking about the children, who are now looking in the store window.  He resists the temptation to pat one of them on the head, deciding this would be creepy.  
  
"I just want to steal them."  
  
Nephrite wonders how many times the other Senshi have reminded his girlfriend that that's actually kidnapping.  
  
"How many?  Oh, I'm not sure."  
  
Nephrite freezes, the flame on his lighter sputtering before being snuffed by the breeze.  His jaw clenches from the sudden tension.  They haven't had this conversation yet.  He's not _ready_ to have this conversation yet.  What they have is still pretty new - awesome, but new - and kids hadn't even seriously crossed his mind yet.  He silently prays the number is three or below.  
  
"I mean, if I had my way, I'd fill the whole house with them!"  
  
In the summer heat, Nephrite breaks out into a cold sweat.  A houseful of children?  God, how many is that? To begin with, she lives in an apartment, so filling that wouldn't take much effort, but she's talking about a mythical home.  How big is this home?  And what precisely does 'filled with' mean?  Stacked on top of one another filled with?  One in every room filled with?  And does their size factor into her scenario?  Because between the two of them, their kids would probably be on the massive side.  Gorgeous, obviously, but large.  
  
"I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I really can't have enough."  
  
Nephrite is very near panicking.  Doesn't he get a say in this?  These are his kids too, aren't they? He hopes they are.  And if not, who the hell is she thinking of having kids with, where does he live, and how long can Nephrite beat him until he passes out from the pain?  
  
"Oh, ten minimum.  Definitely."  
  
Nephrite drops the cigarette and the lighter.  He sways against the brick wall so heavily that it is the only thing holding him up.  He is acutely aware of the brother and sister staring at him, judging.  
  
Ten kids.  _Ten kids._   She wants ten fucking kids.  
  
He can't do it.  He loves her ridiculously, but every man has limits.  Ten kids is his.  
  
"But you know, the more the merrier."  
  
SHE WANTS MORE THAN TEN KIDS.  
  
That does it.  
  
Nephrite bursts into the shop, making both Makoto and the store clerk jump.  "Babe, seriously, don't do this to me.  I mean, I love you, and I will do almost anything for you.  I'm quitting smoking.  I even stopped threatening to kill Jadeite so much because you asked me too.  And you know that's really hard because he can be a giant--But ten kids?  TEN KIDS?!  Please, don't make me do it.  I can't do it."  
  
Makoto stares at him, mouth hanging open.  A moment passes before she can close it.  
  
Then she laughs in his face.  
  
He almost never raises his voice to her, but he is jonesing for nicotine, and now she's just taunting him.  **_"Babe!"_**  
  
"I'm sorry," she giggles, wiping at tears.  "It's just - God, I can't believe you thought I was talking about kids!"  
  
His suddenly feels like a balloon deflating. "You... you weren't?"  
  
"No!"  She's still laughing, her face turning pink.  "Nephrite, I was talking about plants."  
  
He has never been more confused in his life.  "Plants."  
  
"Nephrite, we're in a flower shop."  
  
He looks around.  They  _are_  in a flower shop.  Funny, he hadn't noticed.  
  
"I said that I always have a minimum of ten plants in my house," she clarifies, holding up a pinkish flower he's never seen before with a name he probably can't pronounce.  "And I think the flowers are darling."  
  
Nephrite hesitates.  "So... basically I made an ass out of myself for no reason."  
  
"Which is so new and different from all the other times you've made an ass out of yourself," she teases.  
  
Sadly, he cannot disagree.  
  
Makoto puts the flower down, abandoning her purchase for the time being, and saunters up to Nephrite, smiling broadly.  "I did like one part of that speech though."

For a moment, he's confused.  The whole thing seems pretty dumb in retrospect.

And then he remembers that he said he loved her.

And he's never said that before.

And this is how he chose to do it.

"Shit."

She's still smiling, and Makoto doesn't smile unless she's genuinely happy.  Yet another thing he loves about her, yet another reason he loves her, but damn it if he still didn't fuck this up.  "I mean, I don't think it's any girl's fantasy to have a man say 'I love you' for the first time having a panic attack about kids--"

" _Shit_."

"--but I love you too, so I guess I can forgive it."

"Shit **shit** \--wait, what?"

She's not just smiling; she's blushing.  A bit embarrassed, but mostly pleased.  Happy.  He made her look that happy.  "I love you too, dumbass."

He doesn't remember making the decision to move, but a moment later, he's closed the distance between them, made a noise that can only be described as 'whoop,' and lifted her off her feet.  He knows the clerk is probably crafting blog post about the weirdos making out in her store, but whatever.  Makoto loves him.  Who cares what anyone else thinks?

After a solid minute of spinning kisses, she smacks his arm so he'll put her down.  Another bruise to add to the pile, and he barely feels it.

They apologize to the store clerk, Makoto decides to buy the pink flower from earlier, and they both leave a generous tip for putting up with them.  For some reason, the kids are still outside the shop.  The girl has dumped her brother's ice cream cone on his head, and now he's wailing at a volume Usagi might not even be able to reach.

Once they've turned the corner and can barely hear the reverberating sobs, Nephrite says, "You know, I did have a plan for... well, that."

"Really," she says flatly.

"I mean, that wasn't that plan," he assures her.  "I cannot stress enough that that was not the plan.  And okay, maybe I didn't have plan exactly.  But I was working on a plan.  Nothing just seemed... good enough, and I wanted it to be.  Good, I mean."  He pauses.  "Ironically, flowers may have been involved."

She leans into him so he can wind an arm around her shoulders.  "It was good."

"Really?"

"Really.  Weird and dramatic and kind of hilarious, but good."  Her smile shifts into something more sly than he's accustomed to.  "So, since ten is too much for you: how many children do you want?"  
  
His stomach falls somewhere in the area of his ankles.  It's a day of high highs and low lows.  
  
"Umm... I... Err... However many you want?"  
  
She snorts. "Uh-huh.  How about we revisit this in a few years?  Or a few averted apocalypses.  Whichever comes first.  Deal?"

Relief floods him instantaneously.  God, she's the best.  "Deal."

"Deal."

* * *

 

Later, after they've reached her apartment, and he's decided to hang back and try to actually smoke the cigarette he'd wanted when this all began, she says.  "I should point out that you were being kind of presumptuous back there."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."  She pulls away from him to open the front door to her building.  "Who says they'll all be yours?"  
  
Nephrite goes rigid as she crosses the threshold.

She's teasing him.  He knows she's teasing him.  Probably.  Maybe.  And in case she's not-  
  
"Some bastard is going to  _die_."

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to put this in Moon Drops, my ficlet dumping ground, but it's... kind of complete in a way that I think warrants its own post? Even though it's shorter than some installments. I don't know, when I realized this was the first time he was saying 'I love you' during the rewrite, I got that feeling.
> 
> P.S. I'm pretending Sailor Moon's timeline is shuffled forward twenty years, so the store clerk actually live tweets the whole thing, but she's very sweet and complimentary.
> 
> It definitely goes viral.


End file.
